Everything You Need to Know About 'Big Little Lies' Season 2

Big Little Lies started out as a limited series, but its finale left watchers wanting way more of the Monterey moms and their story. Thankfully, HBO announced that Big Little Lies season two is on the way, with seven new episodes... but they won't be released this year. Here's what's been confirmed so far:

1. There's a new director attached. Jean-Marc Vallée directed every episode of season one and is quoted as saying "if we do a season two, we’ll break [a] beautiful thing and spoil it." He somewhat predictably decided not to return for the second season and was replaced by Andrea Arnold, who previously directed episodes of Transparent and I Love Dick, as well as films including the Oscar-winning short Wasp.

2. The Monterey Mom squad is back! Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman will also return as executive producers, while Zoë Kravitz, Laura Dern, and Shailene Woodley will reprise their roles on screen.

3. The author of Big Little Liesalso wrote season 2's story. Big Little Lies is based on a book of the same name by Liane Moriarty, and while Moriarty never published a sequel to the book, she wrote a new story that season 2 will be based on. Season one showrunner and writer David E. Kelley will also return to write the episodes.

4. Alexander Skarsgard may or may not turn up again. Skarsgard won an Emmy, a SAG Award, and a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Perry, but his character was also revealed as the victim in a fatal (and frankly welcome) stairway "accident." Still, even if Perry is dead, there's no telling if he'll appear in flashbacks or in his widow Celeste's nightmares — executive producer Bruna Papandrea recently responded "not that I know of" when asked if Skarsgard will return. Skarsgard has also teased, "I don't even know if I'm really dead or not. I feel OK right now but we'll see."

5.Meryl Streep will play Perry's mom. Yup, you read that right. Meryl Streep is joining the cast of Big Little Lies to play Perry's mom, who will arrive in Monterey with plenty of questions about her son's death. In April 2018, Kidman shared a first look at Streep with Celeste's "darling boys." What are they looking at? A secret recording from the ghost of Perry? Meryl Streep's cinematic history?

6. It's not coming out until 2019. When asked if the show would return for 2018, Casey Bloys (programming chief at HBO) said "No. They start shooting in the spring. It's not going to air in 2018." So this year is out. That does leave 2019 as a possibility, but no one has explicitly said when the show will return.

7. Bonnie's parents will show up. In April 2018, The Hollywood Reporter broke the sad news that Zoe Kravitz’s real-life parents Lenny Kravitz and Lisa Bonet will not play Bonnie’s parents on BLL. Rather, those roles will go to Martin Donovan (of Weeds fame) and newcomer Crystal Fox, who will play Martin and Elizabeth Howard, respectively.

HBO

8. Renata will have some "challenges" in her marriage. In February 2018, Deadline released some basic plot points for the next season, including Renata facing some marital difficulties.

9. Bonnie will struggle with what she did to Perry, as it relates to something else in her past. The same Deadline report suggested that there's more to Bonnie than meets the eye, and Perry's death will drag up some unsavory memories for her.

10. There will be a hot, "off-beat" surfer in town. Please welcome to the stage (via Deadline), actor Douglas Smith, who will play Corey Brockfield, who's also an "aspiring marine biologist" and Jane's (Shailene Woodley) co-worker. The Canadian actor's filmography includes the TNT series, The Alienist, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and Big Love, in which he played Bill and Barb's son, Ben. Here he is looking cute on the beach:

11. The cast will receive significant pay raises. Via ABC News, Casey Bloys, the president of programming for HBO, confirmed in April 2018 that the cast will receive pay increases. He also told THR in an earlier interview that the pay raise was a “direct result” of the Times Up movement. “One of the things that’s come out of thinking about the movement and some conversations with Reese, who’s really at the forefront, is something we’ve done recently. We’ve proactively gone through all of our shows — in fact, we just finished our process where we went through and made sure that there were no inappropriate disparities in pay; and where there were, if we found any, we corrected it going forward.” In January 2018, THR reported that Witherspoon and Kidman, who are also producers on the show, will earn $1 million per episode on season two, compared to $250,000 to $350,000 per episode on season one.

12. Otter Bay Elementary will welcome a new teacher. Mo McRae, who was most recently seen in Pitch, will join season two as Michael Perkins, a new second-grade teacher who causes Renata’s daughter to have a panic attack after a lesson on global warming. In May 2018, HBO confirmed that P.J. Byrne will reprise his role as the school’s principal. The network also announced that Poora Jagannathan (Gypsy, The Night Of) will play a new character named Katie Richmond, though no further details were available.

13. Meryl’s been having a blast on and off set. Here she is hamming it up for a photo during a group bowling outing.

A Part of Hearst Digital Media
House Beautiful participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites.